Business

Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters evacuated after threat

By Katie Nelson

San Jose Mercury News

Posted:
03/11/2014 09:50:45 PM PDT

Updated:
03/12/2014 11:06:38 AM PDT

MENLO PARK -- The headquarters of social media giant Facebook was temporarily flooded with officers and cordoned off Tuesday evening after a threat against the company was called in to authorities, Menlo Park police said, but the threat was quickly cleared.

The threat was originally called into the San Francisco Police Department around 7 p.m., said Menlo Park police Cmdr. Dave Bertini.

The department transferred the call to Menlo Park officers, who went to the campus and closed off the entrance with tape. Officers searched the campus, while the company asked its employees to stay put before police could prove or disprove the threat.

"At this point, we're not even sure the call was meant to be for the Menlo Park campus," Bertini said.

Officers did not find anything at the campus, and Facebook eventually shuttled its employees home.

Bertini added that he could not say what the threat was, only that it was proven to be "non-credible."

The company, founded in 2004, has more than 6,000 employees. Thousands of those workers report to the company's main campus at 1601 Willow Avenue, an address that was rechristened as "1 Hacker Way" after the company took over the old Sun Microsystems campus.

Last week, Menlo Park's city council voted last week to allow the company to pay about $200,000 a year to the city to fund a full-time police officer who would be stationed near the new campus.